Choosing the right tools

Village Hotel Club, a large chain of 28 contemporary hotels across the UK, wanted to reduce their energy costs as well as improve overall comfort for their customers. They embarked on a project with Carbon Credentials; a partner of the hotel group who optimise energy and carbon performance. Carbon Credentials then contracted Synapsys Solutions to supply the hardware for installation in the Village hotels.

The quest to unlock further energy savings continues for all businesses. Therefore, it is vital to have the correct tools in place to make sure buildings are run and maintained in the most efficient manner. Carbon Credentials asked Synapsys to conduct a site visit at the Village Hotel in Maidstone to determine which one of their devices would be most appropriate for this project. Working with the maintenance System Integrators, Synapsys implemented the SIPd device at the test site in Maidstone.

Capturing real-time data

SIPd provides fast and simple data acquisition which improves building performance. The device is a small box which connects to a Building Management System (BMS) and captures the data. The SIPd device then sends live data to an external data analytics partner: Carbon Credentials. Various readings are taken on gas, electric, humidity, temperature, biomass and power usage meters.

Real-time data was captured over a three-month period, allowing Carbon Credentials to analyse the data and identify which of the buildings systems and plant were not working efficiently. By pinpointing potential issues, changes were made to the BMS to optimise the running of the hotel to ensure energy and financial savings were made.

Paul Whitticase, Business Development Manager at Synapsys Solutions explains: “Our range of SIPd devices offer a simple way to extract large volumes of data from a BMS in real time. The insights from analysis of this data can then be passed to the onsite Systems Integrators to allow them to optimise the performance of the BMS, leading to large energy and cost savings in a building.”

Identifying trends in energy consumption

Significant benefits were instantly achieved at the Village Hotel in Maidstone simply by optimising the boiler settings. It was discovered that the hotel only required the use of one of their two boilers, even during colder conditions. This highlighted that the hotel did not realise that so much energy intensive plant equipment ran for extensive periods of time.

What’s more, remote monitoring allows issues and faults to be quickly identified and rectified. Consequently, this lessens the impact on guests using the hotel, as well as avoiding potential plant damage.

Extensive cost and energy savings

Following the cost savings achieved at the test hotel in Maidstone, the Village hotel group agreed to implement the SIPd at their other sites. Synapsys’ support remains ongoing with this project as the SIPd device has since been installed at the remaining 27 hotels.

The SIPd device has proved cost effective; as the data analysed so far has identified large saving opportunities of 10-20% with payback expected in under one year.

Andy Mazzucchelli, Consultant Energy Engineer at Carbon Credentials, says: “We have chosen the SIPd device because it is cost-effective and versatile at capturing asset level data from different types of BMS’s. The ability to capture data from the device remotely has been essential, allowing us to look at live data.”

Andy continues: “Managers have seen more value in the device from a maintenance perspective. The device allows them to be more proactive in rectifying faulty equipment rather than reacting to guest complaints due to discomfort.”

We have chosen the SIPd device because it is cost-effective and versatile at capturing asset level data from different types of BMS’s. The ability to capture data from the device remotely has been essential, allowing us to look at live data.